The House, Thursday afternoon, passed the compromise to repeal House Bill 2 following the Senate’s action earlier in the day. Two-thirds of the chamber’s 50 senators approved the bill Thursday.

North Carolina legislators started making strides toward repealing HB2 after they announced at a news conference late Wednesday night they reached an agreement with Governor Roy Cooper to repeal House Bill 2.

The new bill proved divisive, with a flurry of statements released by organizations alternately supporting or decrying the bill. The NAACP called the new bill “anti-worker, anti-access to the courts and anti-LGBTQ” as well as “an insult to civil rights.”

The NAACP called the new bill “anti-worker, anti-access to the courts and anti-LGBTQ” as well as “an insult to civil rights.”

President of the conservative Civitas Institute, Francis De Luca, also attacked the bill, telling legislators they ““should carefully consider whether or not North Carolina wants to be seen as a state willing to bow to the will of extortionist tactics to accomplish a social agenda at odds with the will of our citizens” and saying the “bill could set a dangerous precedent for groups trying to impact legislative actions.”

The North Carolina Democratic Party supports the bill, and North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Wayne Goodwin said, “while this is not a perfect deal, it will remove discriminatory legislation from the books and will give our state an opportunity to finally rebuild.”

The GOP-controlled legislature and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper have been trying to find a way to repeal House Bill 2 before the NCAA decides to leave the state out of hosting championship events through 2022. The NCAA had mentioned a deadline this week.

House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger said Tuesday evening that they had agreed to a plan from Cooper’s office that would repeal HB2 but include other provisions.

Berger said Cooper backed out of that plan.

The House Democratic leader said later there had been no formal offer and called the Republican leaders’ news conference a stunt because the GOP lacks the votes to pass a bill.

The NCAA says repeal HB2 by noon Thursday or lose out on hosting championship events for the next five years.

In that time frame, the state submitted 133 bids for NCAA events. If North Carolina lost out on hosting them, it would be an estimated 250 million dollar impact.

Gov. Roy Cooper released a statement after last night’s announcement saying, “I support the house bill two compromise that will be introduced tomorrow. It’s not a perfect deal, but it repeals house bill two and begins to repair our reputation.”

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